"Palais de Steff" has arrived and is a work in progress.
So come on in...grab a cocktail... or the nearest available houseboy and make yourself at home...feel free to wander about or just plonk yourself down and stay a while...
Princess says "Hello and Welcome"!...

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

A Casino Christmas Adventure.... and... A Little Disappointment....

Hello Dhaaarlings...

Yesterday... The Empress and I arose early and caught a train to the big smoke of Melbourne... to meet up with some friends for a Christmas luncheon...

The weather was delightful... and all the way down on the train the Empress kept saying to me how wonderful the Christmas Display in the foyer of the casino was... remembering having taken the grandchildren to see it several years back... So by the time we arrived we were both looking forward to seeing it...

And the water of Melbourne's famous Yarra River...almost sparkled in the sunshine... it was a lovely balmy summers day...

We strolled along South Bank Promenade outside the Casino...Enjoying the sights and sounds of the city... Even seeing a Helicopter land in the middle of the river (On the helipad)

And I did say that the water almost sparkled...

Until one took a closer look!....

Inside the Foyer of the Casino one entered almost complete Darkness...

As our eyes adjusted to the dimness... I said to the Empress... "Well... for a place that takes so much money off people... you would think they could at least pay their lighting bill"... And as our eyes adjusted in the dark... there stood before us... a partially lit Christmas tree...

They must have heard me... as suddenly.... The whole place lit up and came to almost life with a (rather sad) Mechanised Christmas entertainment for the masses.... or those hearty gamblers that remained and could see though their tears as they were now left too broke to enjoy a real Christmas...

An umbrella contraption in one corner opened to reveal... of all things...

a

Circus!

Really? At Christmastime????

With strange little dolls attempting to do some sort of acrobatic performance

And across in the other corner...

A Santa on a carousel surrounded by monkeys playing musical instruments???

It was all just a little too weird if you ask me... At one stage... some fairly daggy looking furred creatures which were meant to represent

a "Barrel of Monkey's" but looked much more like misplaced sloth's hung down from the ceiling.... I couldn't even bare to take a photo Darlings....

The Sloth/monkey rags were enough to give any decent child Christmas nightmares... And for goodness sake... How many of the little darlings would know what a "Barrel of Monkey's" was these days anyway... even if it jumped up and smacked them on the head.... I'm sure that I heard one of them weeping into their smart phone to what I presume was the animal protection agency...

"Yes ... come quickly.... They're putting all these cute little monkeys into a barrel.... Yes it's terrible... hurry... the lid is going on an they will all die if you don't come and save them "

And then this was the big finish....

Ta Ddaaa!!!

The upside-down umbrella thingy... all hung with silver baubles revolved around to display the static message...

Merry Christmas!

As the foyer returned to its original state of gloom...

Suddenly the masses watching erupted into a loud round of cheering and clapping... I thought to my self.... Why are these fools clapping and cheering? Its a mechanical presentation... There are no performers... no one to receive the applause for this somewhat dubious presentation. The reset program will kick in in a minute and the cogs will start rolling again to repeat the whole awful extravaganza in a half hours time... Idiots!

"Come on Empress" I said... "After that display I think we could both do with a stiff drink!"... and to my surprise she agreed adding... "It would have been a lot better if they had been giving out complimentary hundred dollar notes"....

And with that we wandered off to find the nearest watering hole....

Which wasn't far given that it was a Casino that we were in after all....

We met up and had a lovely luncheon at the Chinese yum cha with our friends... The food was good as always....

Later we wandered back outside past the happily dancing mechanoids... and into the bright sunshine to appreciate some real talent and art...

A sculptural piece on the promenade...

I don't know what it is meant to represent...

And... I didn't even bother to find out who the artist was but...

but it caught my eye...

It was a welcome relief... and by far.... More impressive than an allegedly

5 comments:

Melbourne--well, the entire country--is a place I've longed to visit, and the pictures [outside] are gorgeous.The sad little Disney-eque on a budget Christmas display was a little sad. Especially for a casino.

Dear Bob,I plan on visiting Melbourne on a more regular basis in the coming year, and no doubt will be posting more photos of my beautiful state capital. the Casino's Christmas effort was to say the least... very disappointing.

Hello Mr Lax... the youth choir was singing again this year. Sadly the performance was during our long lunch.But I did see them walk past wearing heavy green velvet robes with gold trim following their performance. Hearing them sing might have made all the difference to our visit....